Equine Infectious Anemia

The rancher called Debbie Beye-Barwick with a warning. "Come and get her or I'm going to put her down." A chestnut mare quarter horse, 80 miles away at a cattle ranch in Okeechobee, had tested positive for equine infectious anemia, a viral disease that is a death sentence for horses unless they are kept in permanent quarantine. "For some of these ranchers, the horse is like a pickup truck," said Beye-Barwick, who brought the mare to her ranch in western Pembroke Pines. "They need them for work.

The rancher called Debbie Beye-Barwick with a warning. "Come and get her or I'm going to put her down." A chestnut mare quarter horse, 80 miles away at a cattle ranch in Okeechobee, had tested positive for equine infectious anemia, a viral disease that is a death sentence for horses unless they are kept in permanent quarantine. "For some of these ranchers, the horse is like a pickup truck," said Beye-Barwick, who brought the mare to her ranch in western Pembroke Pines. "They need them for work.

SUNRISE -- It came down to the wire, but the FRIENDS Ranch got serious offers of pasture land for its horses afflicted with swamp fever. And while negotiations continue on where to place the 95 horses, AmeriFirst Development Corp. has given the ranch 30 days to move. One parcel of 160 acres is west of the Hollywood Sportatorium near Interstate 75 and Hollywood Boulevard. Another property consists of about 130 acres near Southwest 172nd Avenue between Griffin and Stirling roads. "The first property is available but it would have to be cleared and fenced," said Don Terrell, vice president of FRIENDS.

The anger is evident in the anonymous signs stuck on a fence of a flooded pasture, where 26 horses have been standing in fetlock-deep water for several days. "Who committed this crime," and "Shoot those responsible. They shoot horses, don`t they?" In fact, Robin Karoly and Paula Elmore are keeping the horses so they will not be shot. Karoly and Elmore operate the horse farm on Sheridan Street east of Douglas Road, known as the New Beginning Ranch, a shelter for horses diagnosed as carriers of the swamp fever virus.

After two years as outcasts, 41 quarantined horses infected with swamp fever have been moved to a new home on a sprawling site owned by Broward County near the Everglades. The horses, forced off a ranch to make way for development, were moved last week to a 680-acre site the county owns at U.S. 27 and Sheridan Street. The county has agreed to lease between 80 and 90 acres on a yearly basis for $1 a year to FRIENDS, a non-profit group that has run a ranch for quarantined horses for 20 years.

The anger is evident in the anonymous signs stuck on a fence of a flooded pasture, where 26 horses have been standing in fetlock-deep water for several days. "Who committed this crime," and "Shoot those responsible. They shoot horses, don`t they?" In fact, Robin Karoly and Paula Elmore are keeping the horses so they will not be shot. Karoly and Elmore operate the horse farm on Sheridan Street east of Douglas Road, known as the New Beginning Ranch, a shelter for horses diagnosed as carriers of the swamp fever virus.

After months of searching for greener pastures, the FRIENDS Ranch is close to reaching an agreement with its ranch of last resort. FRIENDS officials expect to sign a lease this week for a 40-acre pasture onto which they can move about 94 horses. Joni Fine, president of FRIENDS, which stands for Florida Research Institute for Equine Nurturing, Development and Safety, said she expects the monthly rent on the property to be between $1,000 and $1,200. Most of the 42 horse owners expressed their support for the agreement at a meeting on Wednesday evening.

SUNRISE -- Construction work for a massive building project has made July 31 the date for the last roundup at the J&W Ranch. J&W is a privately owned quarantine ranch for 92 horses infected with equine infectious anemia, commonly known as swamp fever, and is the only facility of its kind in South Florida. The disease poses no threat to humans but requires that horses be isolated from healthy horses for the rest of their lives. Otherwise, they must be destroyed. Horse owners from throughout the state bring infected horses to J&W where people adopt them and pay $17 a month for food.

The quarantined horses that occupy a mucky patch of land off Sheridan Street will not move to a new pasture after all. State agriculture officials inspected a pasture at a North Dade ranch last week and found that only half of it was far enough away from where non- infected horses are being kept. They said the closeness prevented approval of the entire pasture as a quarantine area. The 23 quarantined horses, all of which have tested positive for equine infectious anemia, or swamp fever, are owned by New Beginnings Ranch.

SUNRISE -- Horse owners from the FRIENDS Ranch met at the tack rooms beneath a setting sun on Friday and tried to plan for an uncertain future. Tuesday is the next deadline for moving the horses so that development work can begin on the pasture land along Flamingo Road south of Sunrise Boulevard for the AmeriFirst Development Corp.`s Savannah project. So FRIENDS -- Florida Research Institute for Equine Nurturing, Development and Safety Inc. -- is looking for a new home. A meeting between the horse owners and the developers is planned for Monday to discuss a new site for the nearly 100 horses, most of which have equine infectious anemia, commonly called swamp fever.

After two years as outcasts, 41 quarantined horses infected with swamp fever have been moved to a new home on a sprawling site owned by Broward County near the Everglades. The horses, forced off a ranch to make way for development, were moved last week to a 680-acre site the county owns at U.S. 27 and Sheridan Street. The county has agreed to lease between 80 and 90 acres on a yearly basis for $1 a year to FRIENDS, a non-profit group that has run a ranch for quarantined horses for 20 years.

After months of searching for greener pastures, the FRIENDS Ranch is close to reaching an agreement with its ranch of last resort. FRIENDS officials expect to sign a lease this week for a 40-acre pasture onto which they can move about 94 horses. Joni Fine, president of FRIENDS, which stands for Florida Research Institute for Equine Nurturing, Development and Safety, said she expects the monthly rent on the property to be between $1,000 and $1,200. Most of the 42 horse owners expressed their support for the agreement at a meeting on Wednesday evening.

SUNRISE -- It came down to the wire, but the FRIENDS Ranch got serious offers of pasture land for its horses afflicted with swamp fever. And while negotiations continue on where to place the 95 horses, AmeriFirst Development Corp. has given the ranch 30 days to move. One parcel of 160 acres is west of the Hollywood Sportatorium near Interstate 75 and Hollywood Boulevard. Another property consists of about 130 acres near Southwest 172nd Avenue between Griffin and Stirling roads. "The first property is available but it would have to be cleared and fenced," said Don Terrell, vice president of FRIENDS.

PLANTATION -- Officials of the FRIENDS Ranch had hoped to move their horses to a new pasture to meet an Oct. 1 deadline. But the horses are still wandering the Belmont Tract, their home for the past six months. They were moved to the Belmont property west of Flamingo Road from a ranch north of Sunrise Boulevard so AmeriFirst Development Corp. could clear that land for a 1,200-acre residential and commercial project. The Belmont Tract is part of the AmeriFirst project but land development has not begun there yet. Some horses are infected with equine infectious anemia, commonly known as swamp fever.

PLANTATION -- Quarantined horses from J&W Ranch will be moved to a temporary home on Saturday. The ranch land, on the northwest corner of Flamingo Road and Sunrise Boulevard, will become part of a 1,225-acre building project planned by AmeriFirst Development Corp. Starting at 10 a.m., 97 horses will be moved to the nearby Belmont Tract, an area south of Sunrise Boulevard. AmeriFirst also owns the Belmont Tract. Horses are quarantined after being diagnosed as having equine infectious anemia, commonly known as swamp fever.